Direct-to-consumer genetic testing in the college classroom: Knowledge, attitudes, and concerns of introductory biology students

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Abstract

Pioneered by companies like 23andMe.com, deCODEme.com, and Navigenics.com, direct-to-consumer genetic testing refers to genetic tests that are marketed directly to consumers via television, print media, or the Internet. This kind of testing provides access to a customer’s genetic information without necessarily involving either a medical health care professional or a genetic counselor in the process. In recent years, a course offered to medical and graduate students at Stanford University has included an option for students to undergo personal genotyping, raising the possibility that direct-to-consumer genetic testing could also be incorporated into undergraduate biology courses to enhance student learning. In this study, I assess the attitudes and concerns of college students enrolled in the first semester of an introductory majors course in biology, before and after they had completed the course, regarding the availability of this technology and its possible use in the college classroom. The pre-course survey revealed that these students were open to the possibility of using this technology in their courses, but that they had concerns about the confidentiality and the accuracy of their genetic results. Strikingly, however, completing the genetics, molecular and cellular biology semester-long portion of the yearlong introductory sequence in biology appeared to boost student confidence in this technology and its use in the undergraduate classroom.

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Austriaco N. (2014) Direct-to-consumer genetic testing in the college classroom: Knowledge, attitudes, and concerns of introductory biology students. PeerJ PrePrints 2:e242v1 http://dx.doi.org/10.7287/peerj.preprints.242v1

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Competing Interests

There are no competing interests.

Author Contributions

Nicanor Austriaco conceived and designed the experiments, performed the experiments, analyzed the data, contributed reagents/materials/analysis tools, wrote the paper, prepared figures and/or tables, reviewed drafts of the paper.

Human Ethics

The following information was supplied relating to ethical approvals (i.e., approving body and any reference numbers):

IRB# - IRB00007026

Institution/Organization # - IORG0005826

Federal assurance # - FWA00014558

The study was approved by the IRB under Exemption #2 on June 21, 2011.

Grant Disclosures

The following grant information was disclosed by the authors:

NIGMS R15 GM094712

NSF MRI-R2 0959354

NIH Grant 2 P20 RR016457

Funding

My research laboratory is supported by the following grants: NIGMS R15 GM094712, NSF MRI-R2 0959354, NIH Grant 2 P20 RR016457 to the Rhode Island INBRE Program for student training, and a CAFR faculty research grant from Providence College. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.